Bitter sweet symphony — for some...

 

And let’s start from the (chronological) beginning: New York-based accountant Allen Klein started out in the music industry by managing small one-hit bands in the late 1950’s. But he was incredibly ambitious and managed to convince then-Soul superstar Sam Cooke to hire him as his manager, thus effectively creating the role in its modern incarnation. That worked out well for both: Cooke’s star kept on rising and Klein established himself as a legitimate music power player.

Then, the unthinkable happened: Sam Cooke tragically passed away at age 33 in 1964, and Klein was left looking for new star artists to manage. And he set his sights high: the British invasion‘s very top names. As the Beatles already had their guy, the famously devoted Brian Epstein, it was The Rolling Stones that Klein managed to get as his new clients (he would later snatch the Beatles too when Epstein passed away, thus — briefly  — managing the two most influent bands of the era simultaneously). And his early work with the band was as satisfactory as it had been with Cooke: better deals with labels, more income and an ever growing fame…

Over the years, however, the Stones became increasingly suspicious of Klein’s handling of their business, eventually finding out that the man had in fact surreptitiously taken over the US rights of the band’s song by establishing a separate legal entity there — for his sole benefit (which explains why, for many years, Stones albums came in two versions, with often different track listings, on both sides of the Atlantic). This led to a long financial and legal battle that ended with the Stones cutting all business ties with Klein — but with Klein retaining ownership of song rights released prior to that moment.

Which brings us back to The Verve: their chart-topping, career-defining 1997 single “Bitter Sweet Symphony” is actually based on an instrumental track recorded by Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones’ one-time producer, and based on a Stones song entitled “The Last Time“. While Richard Ashcroft and his Verve bandmates did negotiate the rights to the sample with the Stone’s copyright holder, they failed however to get into contact with Klein’s company, who de facto had claims over the piece, albeit in a highly indirect way: after all, we were talking about a six-note sample, taken from an instrumental version that only the most faithful Stones fans could recognize as one of the band’s own compositions…

No matter: Klein sued The Verve, and relented only when he received… all royalties to the song! Thus ending one of the most bizarre episodes in music business history. Which also happens to coincide with some of the greatest modern music ever created…